The Kid
by Christi Talmer
Summary: AC 199. Two years after the Mariemeia incident, the five Gundam pilots are finally beginning to settle into their new lives. But something is introduced that may upset those lives...a daughter of their very own. PG13 for language. Prequel to Gundam Wing:


::disclimer::

Gundam Wing is owned by Sunrise and the Sotsu Agency. No trademark infringement is intended in the publication of this fanfic.

"No. You didn't. You son of a bitch, tell me that you didn't do this. Tell me!" 

Doctor J cringed only slightly before an extremely angry, extremely homicidal, and therefore extremely _dangerous_ Heero Yuy before straightening up again and addressing the ex-soldier.

"Unfortunately, I can't do that. I did do this. In all of our best interests, might I add. You'll thank me someday."

"If I don't kill you first!"

The man who had mentored Heero through all of those years laughed, a sadistic smile twisting his face. 

"You won't kill me. Funny thing about threats, Heero, is that if you make enough of them and don't fulfill them, then..." Dr. J didn't get to finish this last thought, however, because at that moment a gun was leveled at his head.

"Tempt me. Give me another reason to kill you." The doctor wisely decided to stay quiet this time, and Heero lowered his gun and turned to his comrades. Duo, Trowa, Quatre, and Wufei- they had all assembled once again at the Doctor's request. Though they had been expecting bad news, this was _not_ at all what they had had in mind.

"A child," Trowa murmured. "_Our_ child, in a fashion of thinking." Doctor J laughed harshly at this, forcing Heero to turn around and silence him with the butt of his gun. Quatre sighed.

"What're we going to do? If we leave him...her...the baby here, Dr. J'll have his way with it."

Now it was Wufei's turn to sigh.

"Then we cannot leave it here. Who knows what fate might await a child such as this, with a mentor like him..." The Chinese man gestured to the prone body on the floor, and Heero, who knelt next to him, nodded.

"He was trying to make another me...another Perfect Soldier. Even after peace has been gained, maintained, and defended, there are those who would see it destroyed. We've come too far and fought too hard to let _anything_ jeopardize it again."

Quatre frowned as a thought occurred to him.

"But if we take the child, J can just create another. He's certainly got the skills, the materials, and the incentive...even though we don't know what that is."

"And we won't get a chance to learn what it was. I hit him too hard." Heero stood up once again after his check for the man's vitals, and looked back at the body. "That's one threat I did follow through on."

An uncomfortable moment of silence followed, but it was broken by a certain happy-go-lucky ex-pilot just making his entrance.

"Sorry I'm late, you gu- shit! What happened?"

Quatre turned to the braided veteran and quickly explained the situation.

"Duo...the reason Doctor J called us all here was to tell us about something. What he wanted to tell us was that, um, ah...we've all got a kid."

Duo choked and stared in bewilderment at Quatre.

"What?"

"Doctor J took DNA from all five of us and used it to create a child. He was trying to create another perfect soldier to train, but somehow I don't think he's going to accomplish that goal anytime soon."

"Yeah, seeings as how he's _dead_!" Duo retorted, then sighed. "So, what're we going to do?"

"We're going to take the child," Wufei answered calmly. The latecomer turned to him, his eyes wide.

"What did you say, Fei? Did you actually say that we're taking the kid?"

"Yes. There is no doubt in my mind that, if left here, the child would die."

"That would solve all of our problems, though, right?" 

Wufei regarded Duo coolly.

"I, for one, have enough blood on my hands as is, Maxwell. This child is of our blood, and, though we had no knowledge of its creation, there would be no honor in leaving one of your own to die."

The God of Death sighed.

"Yeah. I guess you're right, Wufei. That's the only thing we really _can_ do," he relented, then went over to pick up the child from a _very_ unnatural-looking metal crib. Fortunately, there was a blanket wrapped around the child, and Duo picked that up too. He carried the infant over to the rest of the group, and peered into its face. "I think it's a girl. Look, she's got your nose, Quatre!"

The blond Arabian chuckled, then looked around nervously.

"Maybe we should get out of here. It won't look very good if anyone walks in on the five of us standing around a dead body and talking like nothing's wrong."

Heero nodded, and the group quickly exited. Quatre took the girl from Duo's arms as he left- it wasn't that he didn't _trust_ Duo, just that he could be a little careless sometimes- and Duo flicked off the lights as he left. He paused for a moment, however, and looked on the lab for (hopefully) the last time. Wonder reflected in his eyes as he gazed around.

"A kid. _Our_ kid. Our kid was born here." Trying to shake off some of his shock, the braided man shut the door behind himself and locked it, then quickly followed the rest of the guys down the hallways.

__

A kid, huh...

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

During the shuttle ride back home, silence reigned. The five had all come from different places- Heero from someplace on Earth, Duo from L2, Trowa from Sacramento, California, where the circus was this week, Quatre from his estate on Earth, and Wufei from L5. The group had decided to go with Quatre to his home on the Arabian Peninsula to plan what they were going to do with this baby girl. His home was best equipped to hold five or six extra people, and besides, the Maguanacs and random servants running around would be able to help them if an emergency arose. Quatre had fallen asleep, so Trowa was now holding the girl carefully. She was asleep, too, and the brunette looked at her curiously. He hadn't really gotten a good look at her before; everything had been very rushed.

__

She actually does_ have Quatre's nose_, he observed amusedly. Wispy brown hair covered her forehead, and her small chest moved up and down as she breathed. The silent ex-pilot smiled at the tiny form in his arms, then searched her for features of the other pilots. _Brown hair, but that's probably just a mix...looks a little like Wufei, a younger, female, not-really-Wufei Wufei...like Heero too...I wonder what color eyes she's got._ Trowa suddenly thought about the thoughts running through his head, and chuckled. _One hour and I'm already getting attached to her. _ Another thought hit him and he spoke aloud this time.

"...What are we going to name her?" This simple question broke the still, uneasy mood in the shuttle.

"What?"

"What are we going to call the girl?" He shivered slightly. "I am not going to go around calling her No Name."

Duo's brows knit together as he thought, and Wufei considered the matter seriously. Heero looked at the other two and shrugged.

"I have no idea. Makiko? Mari? Don't look at me."

Trowa almost smiled again, then looked to the two remaining men. Wufei shrugged as well, and made an 'I give up' gesture. 

"Duo?"

"Well...um...Not a clue. Maybe Quatre'll have some ideas, once he wakes up."

"Hn? What? What'll Quatre do once he wakes up?" At the sound of his name, the dozing Arabian had woken up.

"Give us ideas for a name."

"A name...oh. Well," he sighed, searching for a name, "what kind of name do you guys want? Japanese, Chinese, Arabian, doesn't matter, what?" He chuckled. "You've got to give me _something_ to go on."

"Doesn't matter. Throw out some ideas," Trowa ordered. The blond sighed again.

"You're making this difficult, you know that? Well...there's ordinary names...Anne, Carolyn, Mary-"

"That's what _I_ said. Mari."

"-or there's more...unique ones. Serenity, Crystal, Solace-"

"Hn. Solace isn't too bad...could call her Soul for short..."

"Heero, could you quit cutting me off for just a minute? Then there's other types of names..."

The debate over a name for the sleeping girl carried on for almost the length of the trip, and consisted mainly of Quatre throwing out names for the other pilots to consider and the others rejecting them. Finally, the shuttle touched down on L4. Wufei, Heero, Duo, and Quatre got out first. Duo held out his arms to take the baby from Trowa so he could get down, and the uni-banged boy reluctantly passed her over.

"Hey babe; it's your Uncle Duo. Well, actually," he amended, "it's your daddy, Duo, or at least one of them...ah...maybe we'll talk about that later." 

The now awake infant gurgled in delight, and laughed at her Uncle...Daddy...at Duo's predicament. He grinned, then shifted the girl so that he could carry her more comfortably. A ghost of a smile tugged at Heero's mouth, and Quatre beamed at his friend's affinity with their daughter.

"Over here, everyone...Rashid's got a car waiting for us." The Arabian motioned the group over to a large, white van, which his right-hand man was standing next to.

"Master Quatre!" the large man greeted him. "How did your meeting g-" He had just caught sight of the baby, and his jaw had fairly dropped. Quatre just laughed.

"Don't worry, Rashid, I'll explain everything once we get in the car." The Maguanac nodded, then climbed into the passengers' seat. Duo was forced to hand the baby off to Trowa in order to get inside, but sat next to him so he could play with the giggling girl. The fourth of their number was about to jump into the front seat when he realized something. "Oh...we don't have a car seat for her. That's another thing we're going to need to get before very long."

"Actually, Master Quatre, there's a seat in the back that I just took off, to make room for all of you..."

"Really?...oh, it's Asadel's, isn't it? Could we borrow it, just for a little while?"

Rashid nodded, then got back out of the vehicle to get the seat.

"Thank you!"

"Not a problem at all, Master Quatre. It'll just take me a minute to set this up..."

Soon the baby was in her car seat and they were on their way to Quatre's home. Trowa and Duo sat on either side of the girl in the very back seat of the van, and Wufei and Heero occupied the two captain's seats in front of them. Quatre rode in the passenger seat and Rashid was driving. After all, it was his van. Meanwhile, the debate continued.

"I think Catherine has a nice ring to it."

"Quatre, why don't you save the flirting for when my sister's here?"

The blond blushed profusely, then tried to jump back into the conversation.

"Well, it does-"

"I kinda like the name Cassie..." Duo commented.

"Short for Cassandra?"

"Sure, if you feel like it...I'd call her Cassie."

Quatre turned around in his chair to look at Heero and Wufei.

"C'mon, you two _must_ have some ideas..."

Wufei scowled.

"I already said that I didn't have any ideas of what to name the child, asking me more than once is not going to give me ideas!"

The interrogator was unfazed by the sudden outburst, and moved on to Heero.

"Any ideas? Any at all?

"Hn."

Quatre sighed.

"This is going to be harder than I thought..."

The girl laughed at her fathers' argument, and looked curiously at the man on her left side. He had brown hair, and pretty green eyes, but he wasn't paying attention to her! She yelled for him to look at her, and Trowa acquiesced, smiling at her. She grinned. Much better. 

__

...

Even though her thoughts were much more lucid and advanced than an average infant, no one had talked while around her and as a result she thought in pictures, instead of words. Giggling at the green-eyed man, she turned to see who was on her right. It was...

__

Uncle...Daddy...Duo, she concluded, remembering him talking earlier. He was grinning at her, too, and had his hair flipped over his shoulder. It was long hair, and braided. The thought of that braid made her hands itch to touch it, and she reached out for the hair.

Duo chuckled.

"Look, she's got good taste already. Wanna see the hair? Here...just don't pull..."

Trowa saw what his friend was doing and suppressed a chuckle.

"Duo...might want to watch out, little kids like to pull on-"

"YEOWCH! Here- ow- leggo, let me -ouch- have -unghh- my -ah- hair back!" With some effort, the violet-eyed pilot was able to reclaim most of his braid. He stared at her in disbelief, then at his braid. "Take it easy, babe..."

She just laughed.

After another half-hour or so's drive (during which the child was quiet, unlike her parents who insisted on continuing their argument), the van reached Quatre's estate. It was truly an oasis in the desert, trees shading the seven as they left the car and raced for the indoor haven, and fairly private as well. There was one known road leading to the mansion, but three others in case the residents needed to beat a hasty retreat. Then there were the Maguanacs. They still remained loyal to Quatre, even now after the war. Their homes were a short distance from the manor, still on the grounds, and very lavish homes for servants indeed. Some of them were married and had children, like Rashid and a few others, some were dating, some were single, and some were too young to care. All of them loved Quatre and were willing to do anything for him. That kind of loyalty didn't come around too often, and there were many times when the Gundam pilots had truly appreciated it. This was one of those times, because, still being teenage boys...

They had no idea whatsoever as to what to do with a baby.

"...I think she needs to be changed," Trowa quietly observed as soon as they were inside the mansion. Quatre had momentarily disappeared somewhere with Rashid, and Heero had wandered off somewhere, so that left Duo, Trowa and Wufei. The Chinese man wrinkled his nose and nodded.

"I agree...did either of you, by any chance, have siblings?"

The two shook their heads solemnly.

"Have you ever changed a diaper before?"

Once again, they shook their heads. Wufei groaned.

"Oh, this is certainly going to be fun..."

It wasn't as hard as the pessimistic Wufei had thought; all the trio had needed was a little guidance. They had grabbed a wandering Maguanac, Fakhri, and forced him to help. Fortunately, Fakhri had three younger sisters and a new son, and the 'operation' went off without a hitch. 

"We know she's a girl now, huh 'Fei?" Duo commented, smirking. The Chinese man rolled his eyes and muttered about 'injustice' and 'honor' and 'revenge'. Had he caught the last part about revenge, Duo might have been very worried. As it was, he didn't pay any attention to his friend and picked up the fresh baby.

"Feeling better?"

She giggled and made another grab for his braid, but the father wasn't about to fall for the same trick twice and swung out of the way.

"Hold it, babe, don't start that game up again...yeow!" While he was gabbing, the girl had managed to get a hold on the fascinating length of hair, and Duo was trying his hardest to keep that hair attached to his head.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow...leggo, please babe? Please? Ow...little help here, guys?"

A small grin crept onto Trowa's face, and the third member of the group just smirked.

"We should leave you like this, Maxwell, and let you reflect on the wisdom of leaving your hair so long." Wufei turned to leave, and the uni-banged boy followed him.

The prisoner's eyes widened.

"Oh please, c'mon 'Fei, don't leave me here like this...I'm sorry, I take it all back, I won't tease you again, I'll pay attention to the honor and the justice and the everything, just...OW!...make her let go, please! I'll do anything!" Duo's pleadings increased quickly as the baby experimented with the braid; just _how_ far could it stretch? Wufei and Trowa shared a glance, then relented.

"...Anything?"

"YES FEI, ANYTHING!"

The dragon man smirked.

"All right then. Trowa, can you..."

"I'll distract the enemy, then you rescue the hostage."

Snickers surrounded the trapped Duo, and he yelped as the pressure increased.

"HURRY UP YOU GUYS!"

In the end, Duo was able to save his hair. Trowa had taken the girl from Duo carefully, and the lure of that pointy hair was all that it took to free the braid from her grasp. The taller man paid special attention to his daughter, however, to make sure she didn't decide to pull _his_ hair. It took long enough to make it stay where it was without her help. The emancipated hostage rubbed his scalp, wincing even as he grinned at his companions.

"Thanks a lot, guys. Don't know how much more of that I could have taken."

"Keep your hair pulled back and well out of her grasp, maybe you won't have to worry about it anymore."

Duo winced again.

"Yeah, thanks."

Wufei, assured that Trowa had her under control, turned to Duo.

"Duo, I believe you said you would do _anything_ if we rescued you and your hair?" A truly evil grin was on his face, and he advanced on the braided baka slowly. For some reason, Duo broke out in a cold sweat.

"I-I-I- Did I? Really. I d-don't quite remember saying those _exact_ words..." he stammered. 

"You did," Trowa called. He scowled.

"Yeah, thanks a lot, love you too Trowa," he grumbled. Wufei shrugged.

"There's the small matter of _what_ you're going to do in exchange for your hair..." The ex--pilot shook his head vehemently.

"Nuh uh. No way. No-fricking-way am I going to willingly do-"

"Whatever I want you to do. Unless, of course, you'd like another round with our daughter?"

Duo blanched, then swallowed.

"Well, in that case...what can I do for you today, Wufei?"

The Chinese man smirked.

"Knew you'd come around. The way I see it...you've got diaper duty for two weeks."

The condemned man groaned.

"You suck, Wufei, d'you know that?"

"Xie xie*, Duo. Have fun!" With that, the smirking ex-pilot of Nataku strolled out of the room, leaving an amused Trowa and an outraged Duo behind.

"Can you believe him?" the latter exploded. "Thinking he can just order me around like that-"

"Well, either you can do what he wants and be done in two weeks, or you can leave it and let him gloat over you being in his debt for the rest of your lives," the clown observed. Duo gulped.

"...I see your point."

"Knew you would."

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A few hours later, after everyone had settled in and various necessities for the girl had been borrowed from the Maguanacs, dinner was served. The baby wasn't yet hungry, and was currently having a blast playing with Rashid's aforementioned child, Asadel, on the floor. Quatre looked up at everyone and smiled; the two kids were very cute together. By Heero's best guesses, the girl was about nine months old. Dr. J had started making noise about an 'important experiment' about eighteen months ago, and they had to assume that their daughter was what he was talking about. Everyone at the table was either looking at the two children or, in Heero's case, broodingly picking at his meal.

"Heero?"

He looked up and saw Quatre looking at him concernedly. The Japanese man shook his head gruffly.

"I'm fine...but..." 

"But what?"

"What are we going to do with her?"

Three heads at the table swiveled to look at ex-pilot 01, who sighed and tried to clarify.

"I mean, what can we do? She's away from Doc J. Right. But now what? We live far away from each other. Does she stay with us? Does she go up for adoption, or to someone we can trust? Someone stationary, someone who can give her a normal life? Or do we keep her?" He sighed. "And if we do, whose child is she? Fitting as it may be, 'Yuy-Maxwell-Barton-Winner-Chang' is not a good name for a child."

"And are any of us able to keep her? I mean, look at me. I'm barely able to take care of myself, let alone a little girl. Quatre, you're in the spotlight too often to suddenly have a child. Too many people would be able to use that against you. We've all got skeletons in our closets, and I just don't know whether they're buried deep enough to risk something like this." Finished, Heero fell silent again and looking broodingly over at his daughter. Quatre hung his head, knowing that his friend spoke the truth. Trowa sighed and leaned back in his chair.

"You're absolutely right, Heero. Life in the circus is fine for me, but I don't know about her. Everyone's so busy it would be far too easy to lose a baby, and even with me there it isn't as safe as it should be."

Wufei looked from the girl to the people at the table, his face unreadable.

"I would raise her the best I could, but I don't know. I am away from home three weeks out of four...she couldn't come along with Sally and me, nor would I leave her with a baby-sitter. It cannot be me, either."

The four turned to Duo expectantly, waiting for his two cents. The braided man squirmed in his seat under their gaze, and coughed.

"Ah...well...you see...erm...it's like this. Hilde and I are...ah...finally...making things official? And if she comes with us, there'll be a sibling that looks next to nothing like her along in a few months." He grinned sheepishly. "Surprise?"

They all just stared at him, not knowing whether to slap him on the back in congratulations or slap him in the head in consternation. Finally Quatre found his voice again.

"That's great! Congratulations, Duo...you two will be very happy together."

The husband-to-be relaxed slightly, confident that he had avoided Wufei's lethal backhand...for now. The would-be attacker propped his head up in his hands and glanced around at his companions.

"So...what are we going to do?"

Quatre stood up.

"I think that she would be far safer with any one of us than with any foster parents in the Earth Sphere. Zechs and Noin have their hands full already, and anyone else we could ask for help is in the same boat. This girl is our responsibility. We can't just dump her on someone else just because we run into a roadblock...there's got to be a solution to this problem." With that, the Winner heir began to pace around the room, his face pensive. Trowa watched his friend for a few moments, then shrugged.

"Maybe we could leave this argument for another time. How long can everyone stay here? I've got another couple weeks before I'll really be missed...and I'm long due for a vacation, after all.."

Heero 'hmphed'.

"I'm here as long as I'm needed."

"I can stay for two weeks, then Sally and I have a mission. Though if the situation was dire, she could easily handle it by herself..."

Duo's jaw dropped.

"Whoa! Did The Great Wu just admit that a _woman_ was actually _capable_ of doing something on her own? Do my ears deceive me?"

The belated smack was quickly administered to Duo by The Great Wu.

"Tread lightly, Maxwell."

He winced.

"Sure thing, Wu-man. Whatever you say."

The Chinese man scowled, but decided against taking further action.

"Anyway...like I was saying before I was so _rudely_ interrupted...I can stay as long as ya want, but try to let me go before the wedding. Hilde would really kill me if I missed my own wedding!"

Trowa chuckled.

"I can see her doing that...it would give an entirely new meaning to the words 'till death do us part'."

Quatre grinned- when he spoke, Trowa had some sense of humor- and nodded.

"That means we've got two weeks to figure out what to do next. But," he added, "there's another matter we need to discuss."

"And that would be..."

"What's her name? I think we should decide tonight."

Duo snickered at the resigned faces around the table.

"Quat, you've just opened a whole new can of worms...'least it won't be _boring_ tonight."

After a heated argument that nearly ended in dismemberment by katana, the choices were narrowed down to four.

"Okay," Quatre read, "the names are: Mei, Izumi, Solace, and Cassandra. All for Mei, show your hands!"

Wufei stubbornly raised his sword arm; he swore Mei was an honorable, excellent name for a child. The reason his suggestion had made it to the 'finals' was because he had only just been relieved of his katana. Quatre tallied his vote reluctantly, then moved on. 

"For Izumi?" Heero raised his hand this time. No one knew, exactly, why he had suggested that name, but no one contested it and had left it alone until now. Izumi was the only suggestion the silent man had made, and the blond made note of his choice.

"Solace?"

That was Quatre's personal favorite, and Trowa voted for it too. To their surprise, Duo also raised a hand for Solace.

"I wanna name my own kid Cassie," came the response to their unasked question. Quatre nodded, then cleared his throat.

"Well...in that case...our child will now be known as Solace."

"Solace what?"

Quatre looked at Trowa in confusion.

"What do you mean?"

"She needs a last name. Medical records, legal purposes, things like that. Doesn't have to be permanent, but she does need one."

Heero 'hmphed'.

"I'll get in and tweak the systems a bit once you've decided," he muttered, then fell silent again.

Duo frowned.

"Well...can't be Quatre...can't be me...Trowa?"

"I'd rather not."

"Right. Wu?"

"..."

"Right. Heero, looks like it's on you. Is Solace Yuy all right with you?"

The Perfect Soldier blinked in surprise.

"Well...that's okay with everyone else?"

Four heads nodded slowly, some more loathly than others. Heero nodded.

"Then it's fine with me. Solace Yuy it is." After this statement, he looked over at his new daughter, who had fallen asleep on the floor. He smiled.

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Solace Yuy...that has a nice ring to it...

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It had been settled.

Everyone would stay at Quatre's place for a few weeks, long enough to go through 'Baby Boot Camp' as Duo aptly dubbed it, and make more specific plans. After a late night of planning and arguing, the fathers had all retired to their own rooms. Solace was sleeping in Duo's room tonight, as a result of a 'random' drawing of names out of a hat. Everyone except Duo knew that Trowa had cheated, just to make sure he got to sleep the first night, but kept quiet. _They_ didn't have to sleep with a time bomb, and thus kept silent , as did the house. Luckily, their genetically engineered wonderbaby was a heavy sleeper. Unluckily, so was Duo. Around three a.m., an earsplitting shriek pierced the air.

"Shit!" Quatre yelped as he fell out of bed. He was the lightest sleeper of them all, and had been having a really good dream before being woken up. Rattled, the sleepy Arabian made his way towards Duo's room and the source of the screaming. 

"I am going to kill Duo..." he mumbled. Though he was usually cheerful, for the first half hour after he woke up he was almost as disgruntled as Wufei. Almost. By now, he had reached the door, and opened it tentatively. There was Duo, sprawled out on his bed, asleep and with his headphones on-

"That's why you didn't hear her. Moron," he growled. Yawning, Quatre stumbled over to the crib. Solace lay there, her eyes screwed shut and her hands balled up into fists, screaming her lungs out. Her blond father winced and picked up the squalling child.

"Shh, Solace, 's ok...Quatre's got you..."

All of a sudden, the crying stopped and she looked up at her father with shockingly clear blue-green eyes. He almost dropped her in surprise, but fortunately avoided that incident.

"See, it's okay...it's your dad...shh...no more crying..."

His little girl blinked a few times, then smiled. Genuinely smiled. Quatre was floored.

__

Amazing. I didn't know people could look like that...so innocent, so sweet, so trusting... He rocked her gently in an attempt to get her back to sleep. It worked. Within minutes, the girl now known as Solace Yuy was asleep in her father's arms. Grinning softly, he put her back in the crib and left Duo's room, shutting the door carefully. As he walked down the corridors on the way to his room, his smiled widened.

"She's my daughter. Amazing."

On this thought, an exhausted but somehow psyched Quatre returned to his bed, to sleep for a few precious hours until the morning.

"Good morning, guys," Duo yawned as he stepped into the breakfast room. "How'd you all sleep?"

Quatre shrugged, always the gentleman. He had been in a better mood when he woke up the second time. Heero scowled, Trowa stared at the braided pilot blankly and Wufei focused on his cup of coffee.

"..."

"Duo," Quatre suggested, "why don't you sleep _without_ headphones from now on?"

The addressed man's face suddenly took on the classic 'deer caught in headlights' look.

"What? Do you think I- Do you mean to say I-" he began, then moaned and put his head in his hands. "Oh, damn. She cried and I didn't hear her, didn't she?"

Three heads around the table nodded in solemn agreement. Wufei was entirely too enthralled with his coffee to respond. "I'm really sorry, guys. Please don't kill me."

Quatre chuckled, Trowa just shook his head and on Heero's face was something between a grimace and a smirk.

"If you're lucky."

"Duo," Trowa addressed the scorned one, "if you're going to have kids of your own someday soon then you had better shape up quick."

"Welcome to Hell, the Maxwell Daycare Center," Heero muttered.

"Damn straight."

Soon after breakfast, Solace woke up again, and the five fathers (including a somewhat-more-awake Wufei) played with her and her new friend for a while.

"Rashid, when these two get older we had better keep an eye on them," Quatre commented. Solace and Asadel, the Maguanac's second son, were getting along quite well. Already the latter was willing to share both his toys and his space with the younger girl, who didn't mind sharing at all. Quatre's old friend chuckled.

"I'm afraid you're right once again, Master Quatre. They're already quite the lovebirds."

As he spoke, Solace had crawled over to her 'boyfriend' and was helping him reassemble a stacking toy. They were very cute together. Heero glanced at her from behind his laptop and smiled.

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Kawaii.

Even Wufei peered around his book to see what his little girl was up to. Despite himself, a grin touched his face for a few seconds before he caught himself. Mentally reprimanding himself for being 'weak and emotional', the Chinese man turned back to his book. Odd how he didn't include 'onna' or 'woman' in his insults anymore, not even his mental ones. Trowa was having a good time watching Duo, Asadel and Solace interact, as were Quatre and Rashid. All in all, it was a very peaceful morning. Duo was getting almost as a big a kick out of the toys as the kids were; every few minutes he'd try to 'help' them out or pass them a new toy. His daughter handled him almost like an adult dealing with an overeager child. When he tried to get her interested in something else, she would watch him for a few minutes with cool interest, then turn back to her games with Asadel. It was very funny to watch, and Trowa chuckled.

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Smart girl. That's got to be the best anyone has ever dealt with Duo. Everyone else has either gone insane, threatened to kill him, tried to kill him or became his best friend. He snickered again. _Of course, being Duo's friend is probably nothing short of insanity…_

"...Are you guys hungry?"

Duo's voice broke into Trowa's thoughts, and he almost jumped at the sudden interruption.

"Yeah, a little."

Wufei gave the inquirer a skeptical look, then went back to his reading. Heero grunted, and Quatre nodded.

"You're right, Duo; it's getting close to lunch. Time flies, huh?" The blond bit his lip and thought for a moment, then nodded and resumed speaking. "There's lunch meat in the kitchen...I don't think there's much of anything else that we can eat within an hour or two."

Rashid nodded, and Duo grinned and jumped up from the floor. Solace laughed in surprise at the sudden movement, and Asadel joined her in her bout of giggles. This, of course, set off the entire room. Even Heero and Wufei weren't able to restrain their smiles. Once the 'hilarity' had subsided, the remainder of the party followed the hungry man, Quatre and Rashid leading the way. Heero was the last person out of the room, and stooped to pick up the two children. Solace beamed at him, while her counterpart stared blankly.

"Guess it's my own fault. I haven't been around here in ages..." he muttered to himself, then, mentally shrugging, proceeded into the kitchen.

The rest of the stay at Quatre's proceeded without any real problems, and the five slowly learned how to take care of their child. It quickly became apparent that Solace was unusually bright, and never failed to astound her fathers. However, all things, good and bad, must eventually come to an end. One by one, the fathers had to leave. First to go was Wufei, then Trowa a week later. Duo finally had to depart (Hilde was getting anxious) a few days after Trowa, which left Quatre, Heero and Solace.

"I...guess I'll see you later, Quatre. Thanks," Heero muttered as he exited the house, on his way to the shuttleport. Quatre smiled, then hugged his daughter one last time before regretfully handing her over.

"You'll come back and visit, right? We lost track of you after the war. You aren't going to disappear this time."

The Japanese man nodded, then turned and walked out into the hot sunshine. Solace laughed; she loved the outdoors. He looked down at her at the sound, startled, then smiled himself. Closing his eyes for a moment, Heero just listened to her. She was so happy. If there was anything he could do to keep her from seeing the things he had seen, doing the things he had done, anything at all the keep the nightmares away, he would do it. Sighing softly, he reopened his eyes and looked to the sky.

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Here's to new beginnings.


End file.
